“Most firms don’t have a team problem. They have a decision problem.”
— Gaynor Hardy.
There’s a moment in almost every growing accounting firm where progress quietly stalls. The team is capable. Clients keep coming. Revenue looks fine on paper.
Yet everything still runs through one person – the owner.
Gaynor Hardy, COO of Charisma Ink, LLC, says this isn’t a failure. It’s a phase, but a dangerous one. It feels productive, responsible, even noble. And that’s exactly why so many leaders stay stuck there far longer than they should.
In this episode of Smart Outsourcing Talks, Gaynor didn’t frame this as a leadership flaw. She framed it as a design issue. A structural bottleneck that forms slowly, invisibly, and often with the best intentions.
And once it forms, no amount of hustle, tech, or marketing can move the firm forward.
Keep an Eye Out for When Leadership Becomes the Constraint
Many firm owners start the same way — deeply involved, highly competent, and used to being the smartest person in the room.
In the early days, this worked for almost everyone. You tend to take it upon yourself to fix it all. You review everything. You approve every decision. You stay close to every client. But as the firm grows, that closeness doesn’t scale. It calcifies.
“What I see again and again, “owners say they want to step back — but everything still waits for them.”
Invoices wait.
Decisions wait.
Teams wait.
And slowly, the firm’s momentum bends around one calendar, one inbox, one brain.
This is the bottleneck no one wants to admit — because it looks like leadership on the surface. In reality, it’s control disguised as care.
The Hidden Cost of Being the ‘Safe Pair of Hands’
One of the most revealing parts of Gaynor’s conversation was how she described why owners fail to let go. It’s not what you think – It’s not ego.
It’s fear.
- Fear that quality will drop.
- Fear that clients will notice.
- Fear that the firm’s reputation — something built over years — could be damaged by one wrong handoff.
“Owners often say, ‘I just do it faster myself,’” Gaynor noted. “And that’s true — in the moment.”
But that speed on which you are relying becomes stagnation tomorrow.
Every time an owner jumps in to “just handle it,” they teach the firm something subtle but powerful: This doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to me. Over time, teams stop stepping up — not because they can’t, but because they’re conditioned not to.
But Growth Exposes the Cracks
What makes the bottleneck especially tricky is that it doesn’t show up when things are calm.
It shows up during growth or while you are trying to scale your business.
More clients mean more complexity.
More people mean more coordination.
More tools mean more integration.
And suddenly, the owner is no longer just leading — they’re translating, resolving, approving, and rescuing.
“As firms grow, the work doesn’t just increase. The number of decisions multiplies,” Gaynor said
And if those decisions don’t have a clear home, they default to the top. This is where many firms misdiagnose the issue.
They think they need:
- Better software
- More hires
- Stronger managers
But the real issue is simpler — and harder to face. The firm hasn’t decided who owns what.
The Illusion of Delegation
Delegation is often talked about like a task list. But Gaynor reframed it as something deeper. “Delegation without clarity just creates anxiety,” she explained.
When owners say they’ve delegated, what they often mean is:
- The task was handed off
- The authority was not
The result?
- Teams do the work, but still look for permission.
- Managers execute, but don’t decide.
- Processes exist, but aren’t trusted.
This half-delegation is worse than no delegation at all — because it creates the illusion of progress while the bottlenecks continue to appear in different parts.
And the owner stays exhausted, wondering why letting go didn’t actually feel freeing.
Systems Don’t Fail — Ownership Does
One of the strongest undercurrents in Gaynor’s perspective is her insistence that most firms don’t fail because of bad systems. They fail because systems are installed without ownership.
“You can have the best tech stack in the world, but if no one truly owns the outcome, it won’t work,” she said. This is where many firms misunderstand the role of Outsourced Accounting Services — treating them as capacity instead of capability.
Ownership isn’t about job titles. It’s about decision rights.
Who decides when something goes wrong?
Who decides what “good” looks like?
Who decides when to escalate — and when not to?
The firms that face bottlenecks have one thing in common – in all cases, it is the owners who know it all, and not the team.
And until that changes, no tool or process can truly relieve the pressure.
The Kind of Burnout No One Talks About
What’s striking is how rarely this bottleneck looks like burnout from the outside.
The owner is still showing up.
Still delivering.
Still solving problems.
But internally, something shifts. Decision fatigue sets in. Patience wears thin.
Every interruption feels heavier than the last.
“I hear owners say, ‘I don’t even know what I’m doing all day anymore,’” Gaynor shared.
The problem here is that instead of building, they are just being busy. They are responsive to their teams and clients, but not strategic. They are present, but hardly progressing. This is where leadership gets into survival mode, and scaling slows down.
Where Does Offshoring Actually Fit In?
One of the most grounded parts of the conversation was how naturally outsourcing entered the picture — not as a solution, but as a consequence of clarity.
Accounting Outsourcing doesn’t fix a bottleneck. It exposes it.
“When firms bring in offshore or external support,” Gaynor said, “any lack of clarity becomes obvious very quickly.”
Who owns the process? Who answers questions? Who decides what success looks like?
In firms where everything still routes back to the owner, outsourcing feels chaotic. In firms where ownership is clear, it feels liberating.
That distinction matters.
Offshoring isn’t about promoting delegation for the sake of cost or scale. It’s about leadership maturity — designing firms that don’t rely on one person to function.
The Moment Owners Start to Shift
According to Gaynor, the turning point isn’t when owners learn to “let go.”
It’s when they realize they don’t have to hold everything to protect quality.
“I see the biggest shift when owners stop asking, ‘Can I trust my team?’ and start asking, ‘Have I set them up to succeed?’”
That question changes everything. It removes the need to move from heroics to design, from control to capability, and from exhaustion to intention. This is the moment when the bottlenecks start to dissolve.
This conversation between Maanoj and Gaynor was aimed at having a clear conversation. This conversation is an invitation to look honestly at where decisions still pile up, an invitation to notice what still waits for you, and an invitation to ask whether your leadership is enabling growth or quietly capping it.
When the firm owner is a bottleneck to a business, it isn’t a personal failure; it is more of a structural one.
Like all other structural problems, this can be redesigned too.
At Smart Outsourcing Talks, these are the conversations that matter — not tactics, not trends, but the leadership shifts that determine whether firms stay dependent on founders or evolve into resilient, scalable organizations.
Because the future of accounting won’t be built by owners who do everything.
It will be built by leaders who design firms that don’t need them at the center to move forward.
Want to listen to the complete conversation? Watch here: https://youtu.be/fTJiLNzokro?si=uWZrqjy4q0hrx5ZD
In this Article
editor
Maanoj Shah is the Co-founder & Director of Growth Strategy & Alliances at Finsmart Accounting, where he pioneered the “Accounting Seat” model—a revolutionary offshore embedded staffing solution purpose-built for Accounting and CPA firms. Widely recognized as an outsourcing and offshoring expert, Maanoj’s insights have been featured in leading accounting publications, and he regularly speaks at premier industry conferences including Scaling New Heights, Bridging the Gap, BKX, and Women Who Count.
A dynamic growth leader with over two decades of experience, Maanoj has incubated, scaled, and exited ventures across Fintech, HR, and Consulting sectors, holding various CXO roles throughout his career. His passion for scaling businesses is matched by his commitment to social impact. He is the Co-founder of Mission ICU, a national healthcare initiative that installs critical care units in underserved areas of India, and was recognized by the World Economic Forum for its last-mile impact.
Outside of work, Maanoj leads an active lifestyle as an avid tennis player and passionate golfer, blending strategy and agility on and off the court.
CONTENT DISCLAIMER
The content in this article is for general information and education purposes only and should not be construed as legal or tax advice. Finsmart Accounting does not warrant or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, adequacy, or currency of the information in the article. You should seek the advice of a competent lawyer or accountant licensed to practise in your jurisdiction for advice on your particular situation.
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